Photo taken at The Turning Blue spatial audio playback + Q&A
Kings Place, London N1
(24 June 2026)
I.
The other night, at Kings Place - the cultural pulse of King's Cross - I was pleased to be able to show love and support to my friend Melpomeni Kermanidou. A London-based, Greek-Australian composer, songwriter, music producer, and performer, Meni works across ambient, electronic synthesis, and cinematic genres [1].
Wearing a sleeveless white dress with a round neck, zipped front and slightly flared skirt cut above the knee - a retro space-age aesthetic from the 1960s that magically retains its clean, futuristic appeal - matched with a fabulous pair of white leather lace-up ankle boots, featuring a stacked heel and fluorescent neoprene pink details (Prada), she looked - as she always looks - extraordinarily beautiful (see the image above).
II.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the two gentlemen who shared the stage with her ...
Seventy-year-old musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and programmer Martyn Ware (yes - that Martyn Ware, founding member of the Human League and Heaven 17) sat opposite her, wearing what looked like a tie-dyed shirt and a pair of blue DC trainers.
Beside him was Patrick Clarke, who interviewed Meni and Martyn in his role as journalist and Deputy Editor of online popular culture magazine The Quietus, wearing knee-length shorts that displayed the kind of pale legs forever associated with Ernie Wise (short, fat and hairy), along with a shirt that looked as if it had been slept in (and for more than one night).
I know it was very hot outside, but, really, they could have made a bit more of an effort. They were on a stage, after all, and in the presence of a serious artiste who has worked so hard for so long to bring this current project to fruition. To me, their complete lack of sartorial concern created a revealing tension with Meni's carefully curated aesthetic and it felt disrespectful to her professionalism, the audience, and the event (see the image below).
III.
Moving on - and remembering this was intended to be a music event and not a fashion show, I suppose I should say something about the album unveiled via spatial audio playback [2] as mixed by Martyn Ware (there was, sadly, to be no live performance on the night).
Titled The Turning Blue [3], the album is a dark and experimental work of what is known as ambient music - a genre pioneered in the 1970s by the likes of Brian Eno, who coined the name and established the conceptual foundations for the genre [4]. It essentially prioritises tone, texture, and atmosphere over traditional musical structures like rhythm and melody and often incorporates elements of drone [5], minimalist classical and electronic music.
Not entirely sure what to expect, I smiled when presented at the entrance to the hall with an eye mask, which we were asked to wear for the duration of the album's playing. Obviously, I wasn't going to do that. I wouldn't wear a blindfold to face a firing squad and I'm not going to do it in order to listen to some music, no matter how it's meant to enhance the immersive experience [6].
Actually, the album was pretty good and Meni can be proud of her work. If, towards the end I got a bit bored and began to wish for ear plugs rather than an eye mask, this was not because the music lacked merit - there were intriguing elements and surprises throughout - but because I simply required a breather from its sheer intensity.
Funnily enough, considering Meni's Antipodean origins, rather than techno-alien I thought the album sounded a bit Aboriginal at certain points and it occurred to me that, although not inherently ambient in a modern sense, the hypnotic and sustained quality of Indigenous music could easily be adapted to the genre. At other times, I thought Meni's astonishing vocalisations came close to a form of whale song and I was reminded of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (dir. Leonard Nimoy, 1986).
My primary concern, however, lies not with Meni's powerful compositions themselves, but with the pristine production and the spatial audio mix. Together, they constructed walls of sound which, as Martyn Ware said afterwards, had a cathedral-like quality. Such hyper-polished perfection and Wholeness becomes overwhelming and oppressive at last - every acoustic space is filled - and it is in stark opposition to the gargoyle aesthetic affirmed by Lawrence in The Rainbow (1915) [7] and championed here on Torpedo the Ark.
One yearned for error and imperfection (and a little fresh air) rather than non-stop transcendent beauty and recurrent ecstasy; one listened out for sounds which existed externally to the album and I looked forward to hearing the little birds chirping in my garden in the morning; to hear a note that The Turning Blue did not include; "something free and careless and joyous" [8].
In space, it seems, not only can no one hear you scream, no one can hear you laugh either ...
IV.
As for the subsequent Q&A session, I enjoyed that as it gave me the opportunity to listen and learn and admire Miss Kermanidou's fabulous footwear. The stage discussion served to reinforce the deliberate nature of Meni's artistic vision; the airless, clinical perfection of the mix wasn't an accident - it was exactly what she set out to achieve.
And while I might personally believe in the ruins and think that a cathedral - including a cathedral of sound - is never perfectly a place of gathering until the roof has caved in and it is "mixed up with the winds and the sky and the herbs" [9] - there is no denying that Meni has executed her vision with absolute authority.
The Turning Blue may not be a space I would choose to inhabit - and I was slightly relieved to step out into the chaotic streets of London once more - but it is undeniably a monument to Meni's extraordinary talent and dedication and I wish her all the love and luck in the world.
Martyn Ware, Patrick Clarke, and
Melpomeni Kermanidou (SSA)
Notes
[1] Whilst I'm unable to provide a full biography on a post such as this, here's a bit more about Miss Kermanidou for those who are interested: Melpomeni studied modern music composition at university in Melbourne, Australia before heading over to the UK. A long-serving member of the Mediæval Bæbes, she released her own solo album 8 Tragedies, 2 Love Songs & A Breakdown in 2010 (Lighthouse Records).
Meni then moved into the underground sound art scene; The Turning Blue (see note 3 below) marks her return to the surface. Miss Kermanidou serves as Chair of the Ivors Academy Future Sound Experience Council, which is dedicated to spatial sound, AI, ambient music, electronic music, and the latest in music creation. She is also a full member of the Music Producers Guild and registered with Fusion Management, one of the UK's leading talent and model agencies.
She can be contacted via all the usual social media websites.
[2] For those who don't know - and before last night that included me - spatial audio involves the use of technology to create a 3D, immersive listening experience by simulating sounds as if they are coming from all around you.
Unlike traditional stereo sound - which only plays through left and right channels - spatial audio adds height and depth, making it feel like you are sitting in the middle of a soundscape.
[3] The Turning Blue is the seven-track debut album from the experimental dark ambient sound project conceived by Melpomeni Kermanidou and known as the Sophia Space Agency. Mixed in spatial audio by Martyn Ware, it uses extensive vocal processing to create synthesised alien soundscapes.
The Turning Blue is released independently on 17 July 2026 on digital platforms; a limited edition vinyl version, mastered in stereo by Rafael Anton Irisarri will be released later in the year.
[4] In 1978, Brian Eno - a one-time member of Roxy Music (1971-73) - released the album Ambient 1: Music for Airports (E.G. Records /Polydor). Punk rock it ain't!
[5] Again, for those who might not be au fait with this genre - and again, before last night that included me - this is a minimalist type of music using sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters (called drones). It is typically characterised by lengthy compositions featuring relatively slight harmonic variations.
[6] I could tell the ageing hippie sitting next to me wasn't too impressed with my refusal to give myself over to the experience and play ball by wearing the eye mask.
But I don't like the enforcement of aesthetic compliance under strictly curated conditions; it's bad enough having to sit still and be quiet for the duration of a performance or playback, but being told to wear a blindfold in an already darkened hall and instructed on how to listen to pre-recorded audio seemed a bit much to me. Having said that, watching as audience members willingly blindfold themselves on command highlighted the immense control an artist can exert not only over her own work, but its reception.
Ultimately, I'm just not a very good audience member for the same reason I'd make a lousy worshipper in church - I like distractions and the odd disruption to the performance, playback, or ceremony; anything to break the magic spell.
[7] See D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, ed. Mark Kinkead-Weekes (Cambridge University Press, 1989), Chapter VII, 'The Cathedral', pp. 183-195. I have referred to the gargoyle aesthetic many times on TTA.
For me, it includes cracks, gaps, fragments, ruins, ruptures, breakdowns, and not just the "wicked, odd little faces carved in stone" that peep out of the "grand tide of the cathedral" and exposed the illusion of Wholeness (The Rainbow, 189).
[8] D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, p. 191.
[9] Ibid.
Musical bonus: visit the Sophia Space Agency YouTube channel and play the tracks: 'Star Cycle', written by Melopemi Kermanidou and produced by Melpomeni Kermanidou and Jasper Dent; and 'What a Mess', composed and produced by Melpomeni Kermanidou and Arjun Bhamra.
Both tracks can be found on the album The Turning Blue (Sophia Space Agency, 2026) - which may or may not come with an official SSA eye mask:
